


draw back your bow (let your arrow go)

by lost_n_stereo



Series: Cupid's Arrow [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Actor!Bellamy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Online Dating, F/M, fluffy af
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-10 02:53:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14728605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_n_stereo/pseuds/lost_n_stereo
Summary: CUPID’S ARROW: THE NUMBER ONE WAY TO MEET NEW PEOPLE IN THE GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA. WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A ONE NIGHT ROMANCE OR THE SOULMATE OF YOUR DREAMS, CUPID’S ARROW HAS THE LARGEST DATABASE OF FUN, ATTRACTIVE AND AVAILABLE SINGLES IN YOUR AREA!“Good lord,” Clarke mumbles to herself as she clicks the Create A Profile button. “Here goes nothing.”Clarke Griffin doesn't want to join Cupid's Arrow, Los Angeles' newest online dating site but her mother insists she at least give it a try. Enter "Fake Blake", a man claiming to be Bellamy Blake, TV's hottest new up and coming actor. With a profile photo that can't be found on the internet, to stories only the man himself could tell, Clarke starts to wonder if her online crush could be her celebrity crush too.Modern Romantic Comedy AU





	1. Clarke

Tuesday night is her favorite night of the week. 

Her roommate works late every Tuesday, which means that Clarke gets the television all to herself. And sure, she could always bring up Netflix or whatever on her laptop if she wanted to watch something that her roommate didn’t. But her favorite show is on Tuesday nights, the only one she actually watches live and not on Hulu a day or five later. 

It starts in five minutes, so she grabs her favorite plush blanket from her bed and drags that and a pillow onto the couch in the living room she shares with her best friend Raven. They go to the same college but are in two completely different programs and while Clarke is lucky enough to have help from her mom and stepdad for financing, Raven has to work most nights that she’s not in class. 

She grabs the remote and turns on the TV just as the opening credits of The Ark are starting. She blushes a little when Bellamy Blake’s name crosses the screen. He’s by far her biggest celebrity crush at the moment. His character Robert Moore is her favorite and not just because Bellamy is so good looking. Robert is tough and strong but also kind and sweet. He’s a guard on a space station called the Ark that can’t come down to Earth because of a nuclear war a hundred years before that’s left the planet uninhabitable. 

Sometimes she feels like a nerd for loving this show so much but it is what it is. 

Her phone dings halfway through the episode but she doesn’t check until commercial. 

_Did you think anymore about joining Cupid’s Arrow?_

Clarke rolls her eyes at the text from her mother, who’s been trying to get her to join a new dating site that just started up. It’s supposed to be only for people in the Los Angeles area, where she’s currently living while she attends university. 

_Mom…I told you. I’m not signing up for a dating site that’s just for L.A. People here are the worst._

_Clarke, that’s not very nice! How can you say that when you met Raven there?_

She’ll give her mom that one. Raven is by far the most badass chick she’s ever met. She briefly thought about trying to ask her out because the girl is a straight up _ten_. They were dorm roommates their freshman year and then as soon as Clarke got that college experience out of the way she insisted they get an apartment off campus. 

Clarke sighs and pulls her legs up under her on the couch. Her mom only means well. It’s been almost two years since Lexa passed away and while Clarke hasn’t been exactly celibate, it’s still hard to think about being in another relationship. 

_I’ll think about it._

Her phone dings again almost instantly. 

_That’s all I ask!_

She tosses the phone down on the coffee table with a roll of her eyes and turns back to finish the episode. 

When it’s over, instead of pulling up Tumblr to check out spoilers for next week’s episode like she does most nights, she types in cupidsarrow.com into her browser and hits enter. 

**CUPID’S ARROW: THE NUMBER ONE WAY TO MEET NEW PEOPLE IN THE GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA. WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A ONE NIGHT ROMANCE OR THE SOULMATE OF YOUR DREAMS, CUPID’S ARROW HAS THE LARGEST DATABASE OF FUN, ATTRACTIVE AND AVAILABLE SINGLES IN YOUR AREA!**

“Good lord,” Clarke mumbles to herself as she clicks the Create A Profile button. “Here goes nothing.” 

The signup process is pretty basic. Add a photo, but no nudity. Add a bio, but no profanity. She uploads a selfie she took on the beach of Cancun last spring break and starts to type in her bio, keeping it short and sweet. 

_I’m Clarke, a bisexual college student currently living in LaLaLand while I attend UCLA. I’m originally from the east coast but I plan to stay in California after I graduate. Not looking for anything serious but I’m not looking for a hookup either. Somewhere in between, I guess._

She groans as she reads it out loud. “What am I even doing?” She asks herself as she clicks enter and then her profile is officially live. A popup comes up almost instantly, followed by another, and she clicks through an array of guys and girls that have liked her profile already. Within ten minutes she’s got fifty “arrows” which apparently the Cupid’s Arrow equivalent of a like. She’s supposed to check the other person’s profile and if she likes them back, she can send a message. 

There’s a tab at the top that reads Cupid’s Top Picks, and she clicks it because if she’s here she might as well see what Cupid has to offer her. Her screen is filled with faces and she raises an eyebrow as she takes in how freaking attractive everyone seems to be. Then she remembers that it’s the L.A. crowd, notorious for putting their best face forward even if all they are doing is taking out the trash. 

Every photo has two icons, a broken heart or an arrow, so she thinks, what the hell, and starts making her way through the list. 

Broken Heart: Guy from Long Beach with a bio that reads “Fuck Bitches, Get Money” 

Arrow: Girl from UCLA named Niylah that she’s 99% sure she’s seen on campus before. 

Broken Heart, Broken Heart, Arrow, Broken Heart . 

She’s almost starting to get into this now, picking and choosing a person based on one photo and a few lines of text might seem super shallow but it’s actually kind of fun. 

Her heart stops in her chest when she reaches the next on Cupid’s Top Picks list. 

Bellamy Blake’s gorgeous face is staring back at her. And it’s not a promotional photo either, but a candid shot of him sitting on a balcony smoking a cigarette. His feet are bare, propped up on the railing. He’s looking at the camera and smirking, his full lips curled up as the cigarette hangs from the tips of his fingers. 

She’s never seen this photo before. And she’s seen a lot of photos of Bellamy Blake.

There’s no way in hell that it’s actually him. Last she heard he was dating a CW actress that plays on The Ark’s spinoff, Grounders. Curiosity gets the better of her and she’s clicking on the profile to see what kind of nonsense this imposter is posting.

_I’m Bellamy, I’m 25 years old and I’m an actor. Recently got out of a relationship and I’m looking for someone down to earth, sweet and real. That’s the most important thing…that she’s real._

Clarke’s teeth dig into her bottom lip. That doesn’t sound like someone pretending to be someone famous but she knows that it can’t possibly be the real Bellamy Blake. He could have anyone that he wants, why would he be on some random dating site, making a profile that anyone in the world could find?

Even though it’s fake and she has no idea what the person behind the profile actually looks like, she hits the arrow icon. 

_That’s the most important thing…that she’s real._

For some reason that hit close to home for her. In this town she’s learned that it’s hard to find people that are real. And she realizes how ironic it is that she’s saying that when this person is definitely NOT being real by posting that he’s Bellamy Blake. But maybe there’s a reason they are hiding behind the façade. Maybe she wants to know what it is. 

And maybe there’s a tiny part of her that wonders if he could really behind the screen on the other side.

***

There’s a message from Bellamy Blake waiting for her when she wakes up the next morning. 

She rolls her eyes at herself, her heart pounding when she sees his picture in her message box. 

“It’s not fucking him, Clarke. Get yourself together.” 

The message is short but nice, not at all inappropriate like some of the other messages she’s gotten. 

_Hello, Clarke. Thanks for the “arrow”. Is it just me or is that a very strange way to like someone’s profile? Then again, it could be even weirder considering Cupid is a baby in a diaper but I digress. Not to sound like a creeper but I like your profile photo. And not just because you look beautiful, which you do. I have been to Cancun a few times and those beaches are amazing. I’m Bellamy, by the way._

“Why do you have to sound so normal?” She drums her fingers on her keyboard, thinking of something to say back. 

“Why does who have to sound so normal?” 

Clarke practically jumps out of her chair when Raven walks behind where she’s sitting at the dining room table and into the kitchen. She pours herself a cup of coffee and leans against the counter, raising an eyebrow in Clarke’s direction.

“Uh…no one.” Clarke stutters and Raven snorts. 

“Real convincing, Griffin.” 

“Fine!” Clarke gives Raven the rundown of the night before. Her mom texting and insisting she try this new dating site and then finding Fake Bellamy’s profile. 

“So you sent this guy a like even though you know he’s not the real deal?” 

Clarke shrugs. “I know it’s not him but I don’t know. I just felt something when I read his bio.” 

Raven blinks at her for a few seconds and then reaches for her phone. “Send me his profile pic.” 

“What? Why?” 

“We’re going to reverse search that picture. I know you basically cyberstalk Bellamy Blake, so I’m honestly surprised you’ve never seen this photo before. If it’s a fake profile, whoever made it definitely just pulled it off the internet.” 

Clarke thinks about it for a second before right clicking and saving the photo and then sending it to Raven’s phone. 

“Hmmm.” 

Clarke narrows her eyes. “Hmmm? What does ‘hmmm’ mean?” 

Raven turns her phone screen around so Clarke can see. “No image matches. Anywhere on the internet. At all. Do you know how rare that is? That a celebrity can take a photo without it getting out online?” 

Clarke rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t mean it’s him, Raven. It just means…well I don’t know! But it’s not him.” 

“You’re right. It’s not him,” Raven says from behind her mug. “Just be careful, Clarke. This guy could be anyone in the world. Well…anyone other than Bellamy Blake.” 

They both laugh before Raven goes into a story about a friend from work named Murphy that Clarke always jokes is Raven’s work husband. They aren’t romantic, as far as Clarke can tell, but she can tell Raven cares for the guy. 

“So, did I tell you Shaw asked me out?” 

Clarke’s eyes go wide. “What?! When did this happen?” 

Raven blushes, a look Clarke doesn’t see on her friend often. “Yesterday. He came into the diner and asked if I wanted to go to an air show at the base this weekend.”  
Shaw is in the Air Force and frequents the diner Raven works at. Sometimes Clarke thinks it’s the only reason he goes there at all. 

“That’s awesome,” Clarke tells her and she’s happy for her friend. Raven has had a tough go of it and it’s nice to see a smile on her face. 

“Message him back,” Raven tells Clarke before she leaves the kitchen. “You never know, maybe it’s the person you’re supposed to be with. And you have to admit, this would make an insanely funny meetcute story.” 

Clarke shakes her head. “You’re insane. I gotta get ready for class.” Raven just shrugs and walks out and before she can question herself, she’s typing a response to the Fake Blake.

_I know your profile photo is bogus but I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope you mean it as a joke. I also highly doubt your name is Bellamy, so what’s your real name? You’ve been to Cancun, that’s cool. Did you go for spring break?_

She closes her laptop, expecting it to be awhile before she gets a response, but her phone dings almost instantly. She doesn’t recognize the notification sound until she remembers downloading the Cupid’s Arrow app to her phone the night before. 

_My profile photo is bogus? I don’t understand. My best friend Monty took that photo of me last summer at his beach house in Malibu. And my name is Bellamy, I promise. My mom gave it to me and everything. And no, not spring break. I filmed this little indie film there three years ago._

“Oh, you are good,” Clarke says out loud, laughing as she reads the message again. His best friend Monty. As in, Monty Green, who is another actor on The Ark. This little indie flick filmed in Cancun. If Clarke had to guess, she’d say it was a horror film that Bellamy Blake starred in a couple of years ago that no one she knows has ever even seen.  
Whoever this person is, they did their homework on the real Bellamy. She’s going to catch them in a lie eventually. And she doesn’t know why, but it’s kind of fun talking to him. 

_You must think I was born yesterday. There’s no way in hell you’re Bellamy Blake._

She goes about her morning as she gets ready for class. 

_Oh, so you know who I am? And why is that so hard to believe? And for what reason would I possibly have to lie?_

Clarke snorts as she reads the message. She’s got her mascara wand in one hand and her phone in the other, trying to type with one thumb as she finishes up her makeup. 

_Lots of reasons. Number one with a bullet, I’d guess, is you wanna get laid. What better way to get a girl’s attention that pretending to be the hottest actor on television right now._

She doesn’t realize what she’s said until his message and then she’s laughing.

_Aha…so you think I’m the hottest actor on TV?_

_No. I said I think_ Bellamy Blake _is the hottest actor._

_Same thing, sweetheart. We’re one in the same._

She rolls her eyes and thumbs in a response. 

_I have to go to class. Maybe you should consider telling me your real name since you’re not entirely horrible to talk to. And honestly, I’m sure you’re a good guy. You don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not._

Her phone beeps one more time before she walks out the door, and his response makes her stop in her tracks. 

_Pretending is my job, Clarke. Trust me when I say that this is the true me. Quite possibly the truest me that there is._

One thought crosses her mind in a loop as she drives towards campus. 

What if it’s really him?


	2. Bellamy

Bellamy is always surprised when people stop him and ask for autographs.

He’s currently stopped in the middle of Target, a group of teenage girls surrounding him, but he loves it. The fact that people care enough about him to want a photo or his signature on some random scrap of paper is humbling.

“Can you sign my pop figure?” A girl no older than twelve or thirteen hands over a Robert Moore boxed figurine that Bellamy has at home, sitting next to a framed copy of the pilot script.

“Yeah, of course,” he grins and signs his name over the plastic sheeting on the front of the box. “This thing is pretty cool, I have one too.” The girl blushes when he smiles at her.

Her mother thanks him after they take a couple of selfies and then he’s making his way around the circle until everyone has gotten a photo with him.

When he’s alone again, and he hates to think _finally_ because he loves his fans but yeah, sometimes it’s a little overwhelming.

Eight years ago he was auditioning for anything and everything, working as a waiter to make the rent. Six months after moving to Los Angeles he auditioned for The Ark, a new CW show that had high hopes of being the next Battlestar Galactica. He won the role of Robert Moore, a young but determined Ark guard, and almost a year to the day after he moved here the first episode premiered.

Seven years later and he can honestly say he never thought any of this would be happening.

His phone buzzes in his pocket and he grins when he sees a text from Clarke.

_Clarke: Morning Fake Blake. How goes the “entertainment business” on this fine Friday afternoon?_

_This girl_ , he thinks as he thumbs in a response. She’s so quick to assume that he’s not being truthful with her but she still makes a point to text him. It doesn’t make any sense but he loves it.

_Bellamy: I just got cornered in the cereal aisle by fifteen teenage girls._

_Clarke: Ooh. And what kind of cereal did you decide on?_

_Bellamy: Chex ._

_Clarke: Gross! What are you, 50 years old?_

_Bellamy: I’m 26, brat._

He laughs at her response, a series of side eye emojis, and pushes his cart to the checkout. His phone buzzes again but this time it’s a call from his ex that he immediately silences. Why she would be calling him when they have been broken up for weeks is beyond him.

There’s another text from Clarke waiting for him when he’s done packing his groceries up in the back of his Jeep.

_Clarke: So tell me the truth…when are you going to give up this Bellamy Blake thing?_

_Bellamy: Uhh…when I’m dead, I guess?_

_Clarke: ……._

_Clarke: I wish you could just be real with me._

Bellamy sighs and rests his head on his seat. He really likes this girl but he doesn’t know how to make her take him seriously. They have been texting back and forth for a week, after she agreed to give him her phone number so they didn’t have to use the Cupid’s Arrow app anymore. He saved her profile photo so it pops up whenever she texts him. He even asked his little sister Octavia the best way to go about this. Her advice was to man up and ask her to meet which he’s starting to think might be his only option.

_Bellamy: Have you stopped to think, even once, that maybe I’m telling you the truth? Honestly, Clarke. What do I have to gain by lying to you?_

_Clarke: I really don’t know._

His phone rings, his manager this time, and he rolls his eyes as he takes the call.

“Blake, do I have news for you!”

Bellamy switches from his phone to Bluetooth and starts the drive back to his place.

“What’s up, Tom?”

“How do you feel about starring in a romantic comedy?”

Bellamy groans as he gets on the 101. “Is it a lame romantic comedy?”

His agent laughs. “No! It’s going to be hilarious. Written by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  This could be great for your career, Bell. The audition is next Thursday but it’s just a formality. They want you, so think about it!”

Tom hangs up without saying goodbye, which seems to be the L.A. way, and Bellamy does think about what a movie of this caliber could do for his career. So far he’s only starred in a few features, low budget horror films or indie stuff he did with friends. This could be his chance to break into mainstream movies, even if it’s not necessarily in his wheelhouse.

When he’s stuck in traffic, he looks around to make sure no cops are in the general vicinity before pulling his phone into his lap.

_Bellamy: Do you think I could pull off a romantic lead?_

_Clarke: If you’re asking if I think Bellamy Blake could be a romantic lead, then sure. I don’t see why not._

Bellamy rolls his eyes. There she goes again with the distrust.

_Bellamy: Thanks. I think._

She sends a string of laughing emojis, so he calls her a brat again and tosses his phone in the passenger seat so he doesn’t get a ticket.

***

“That’s a wrap for today! See you all tomorrow, bright and early at 8 am.”

Bellamy sags against the prop couch he’s sitting on and pulls his phone out of his pocket. There are no less than thirty new notifications since the last time he checked but none are from Clarke.

His best friend Monty drops down onto the couch next to him and sighs. “These seventeen hour days are fucking killing me.”

Bellamy nods and puts his phone back into his pocket. “Yeah, they suck. I just want to go home and crash.”

Monty grins and nudges him with his elbow. “Don’t lie to me. You want to go home and message the hot girl from that dating app.”

Fuck, he never should have told Monty about Clarke. The only reason he did was because Monty caught him sending her a text in the middle of a scene when the camera wasn’t on him.

“She doesn’t believe that I’m me,” Bellamy tells him. “Basically all of our messages so far are me telling her that I’m being real with her and then her telling me that I’m some crazy guy trying to lie to get girls.”

“So, send her a picture. Won’t that prove it?”

Bellamy thinks it over and then shrugs. “Maybe but anything can be photoshopped these days. I doubt anything I send would be _real_ enough for her.”

He’s not really sure why he even cares. Yeah, Clarke is gorgeous. The photo she posted on Cupid’s Arrow, with her windblown blonde curls and shy smile made him instantly want to get to know her.  There was something about how free and calm she looked that made him wonder if she could be different than most of the women that he knows in this town.

Women like his ex, Echo.

The complete train wreck that was their relationship is the exact reason he stepped away from the Hollywood dating scene in the first place. They got along great at first, having met when Echo played a character on his show before moving on to the spinoff. It was the long hours on set that bonded them quickly and they went from coworkers to lovers in a very short span of time. He thinks not truly knowing the other person was the reason for their breakup. She took it harder than he thought she would when he ended things, and he’s still dealing with the repercussions today.

He tells Monty he’ll see him tomorrow as he pushes himself off the couch and calls for a car to drive him back to his house. It’s nearing one am and there’s no way he trusts himself to drive even though it’s barely a fifteen minute trip.

To say he’s surprised when he gets a message from Clarke on the ride home would be an understatement.

_Clarke: Let’s pretend for a minute that you ARE Bellamy Blake. Tell me something only he would know._

He laughs out loud and thumbs in a response.

_Bellamy: And how would you know something that I would say when you don’t know me? Also, why are you up so late?_

Her message comes back right away.

_Clarke: I don’t know, figure something out. And I’m studying for a test. Why are you up so late?_

_Bellamy: Pushing 12+ hour days this week filming. Today ended up being almost 17. I’m just now heading home._

There’s no response for awhile so he pockets his phone and rests his head back with his eyes closed until he reaches his place. It’s not a huge mansion or anything, just a decent sized house that he purchased when The Ark went into its third season. The network had basically promised them at least six seasons so he figured it was a good time to put down some roots. Now they are in their seventh season with no end in sight so he’s happy to have a real home to come back to every night and not some shitty apartment in the city.

Clarke still hasn’t responded by the time he’s getting into bed almost an hour later. After he showered and washed off the past seventeen hours of work, he practically fell into bed. He lies there for awhile, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what he could tell her to make her believe him. A thought pops into his head and he smiles, reaching for his phone to send her a message.

_Bellamy: Are you a fan of the show?_

He doesn’t have to wait long before her reply comes through.

_Clarke: If I’m being honest, it’s my favorite. Why?_

He mentally pumps his fist in the air because this? This he can work with. His sister was right. The only way she’s going to believe him is if she meets him.

_Bellamy: Come by the set and visit me. I can get you and a friend day passes to come meet the cast._

Her response is immediate.

_Clarke: There is no way this is real. I can’t give you my address to send some imaginary passes to my doorstep._

_Bellamy: I’ll send you an address. Give them your name and they will let you in. Next Wednesday?_

It’s less than a week away and he hopes that she’ll give him a chance to prove he’s telling the truth. He doesn’t know why he wants her to believe him so badly, maybe because he really thinks there could be a connection there.

_Clarke: Fine. But if I show up at some abandoned warehouse, I’m out._

Bellamy laughs and types in the address of the studio, tells her to be there Wednesday at noon.

Maybe, just maybe, when she sees her name on the approved guest list, she’ll finally see that he’s been telling her the truth all along.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not the fic I started out to write. I wanted to write something angsty for another prompt but I couldn't get this one out of my head. Probably won't be super long, maybe 3-5 chapters, but we'll see. Hope you enjoyed it, let me know in the comments what you think!!


End file.
